


Catch My Breath

by selinakyle47



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Grief/Mourning, Loss of Powers, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Drug Addiction, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 12:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15510225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selinakyle47/pseuds/selinakyle47
Summary: The loss of her powers proves devastating for Karina.  Overcome by pain and guilt, she leaves Sternbild, desperate to forget what’s happened to her.  Three years later, she finds herself back in the city, trying to live a normal, non-powered life.  One that may include a familiar face from her past.





	Catch My Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Because this teeny tiny ship deserves some love.

_Stern Bild, NC 1980._

 

Her communicator started going off just as the photographer had finished moving her elbow an inch to the right, the exact position he needed her to be in for this next series of photos.  Karina was about to ask for a short break when her manager, standing off to the side of the set, pulled his phone away from his ear and called out, "Don’t answer it!"

 

The sultry look that she’d been maintaining for past five minutes fell apart, replaced by a frown that elicited a low sound of dismay from the highly-excitable man circling around her.  Titan was usually permissive with her schedule; earning points was prioritized above everything else, including these magazine photoshoots.  “Why shouldn’t I?” she demanded, dropping the pose altogether and sending the photographer into a near faint.

 

"I already told Agnes that you wouldn't be available this afternoon,” Robert replied with a lazy wave of his hand.  “The magazine goes to the printers tomorrow morning.  Which means that we need to wrap up this shoot today."  He signaled to the photographer to continue and made to return to his phone call, essentially dismissing her.  Karina was tempted to step down from the small dais and argue with him, but one look at the agitated man hopping nervously from one foot to another diffused her irritation.  Robert was right.  Probably best to get this done and over with, instead of having to reschedule for another day.  Resigned, she assumed her previous pose, taking care to place her elbow exactly where the photographer had wanted it, and made a mental note to be more cooperative. 

 

Minutes later the familiar clang interrupted the shoot again.  This time Karina didn't hesitate to pick up the call, ignoring the shout of outrage from her manager and the faint whimpers from the photographer.

 

"Yes?"

 

“Why didn't you pick up the first time?”  Agnes' face filled the screen.  She looked even more harried than usual.

 

"I—”

 

“Never mind that.  There's a fire at a warehouse over by the East Bronze docks.  Get your pretty butt there pronto.  Traffic's backed up all the way to Silver Stage so I recommend that you take your bike and not worry about the speed limit.”

 

“Yes ma—”

 

The signal cut out before she could even finish replying.  Karina practically flew off the dais and rushed out of the room, throwing a “Sorry, it’s an emergency!” over her shoulder as a concession to her fuming manager and the poor photographer.  At least her transport was waiting outside the studio and she didn't have to detour back to Titan to pick up her ride.

 

Even with some skillful maneuvering through the busy rush hour streets and a few instances where she had to create her own ramps, it still took her nearly twenty minutes to reach the location Agnes had so helpfully sent to her communicator.  Karina pulled up just outside a barrier made up of yellow caution tape and gazed wide-eyed at the chaotic scene before her.  Black smoke blotted out the sky, fed by flames rising high enough to lick at the roof of the building.  Personnel from the police and fire departments rushed back and forth, dragging equipment all over the place.  The sirens from the emergency vehicles, along with the orders being blasted out of megaphones and the roar of the immense fire blended into a cacophony of noise loud enough to drown out her thoughts. 

 

A police officer recognized her instantly and waved her through the barrier.  Karina rolled her bike slowly through the crowd and parked it alongside a cruiser.  Finding the other Heroes didn’t take much effort.  Sky High was overhead, hovering over the water and directing the choking smoke away from the burning building, allowing for some much-needed visibility.  Another quick sweep revealed Kotetsu, sitting in the back of an ambulance, apparently being treated by a paramedic.

 

She hurried over to him and was greeted with a weary smile.  "Finally made it huh?"  Kotetsu was a complete mess, more so than usual: helmet laying by his side, sweat-damp hair plastered to the back of his neck, soot smeared across the white and green paint and sponsor logos on his suit.  Seeing him like that gave her pause.  She’d expected him to be in the thick of it, bumbling around in his usual manner as he searched for anyone trapped inside.  Instead he was outside the building, resting up and far removed from all the action.  Which meant that his power had come and gone, and if he’d activated it early, then…

 

A sense of unease twisted around her gut; this situation seemed so much more serious than what she’d imagined.  Still, she took care not to reveal her growing anxiety, especially to him. 

 

“Like I’d let you losers take all the points,” she scoffed at him, making a show of rolling her eyes.  “Care to give me an update?”

 

Kotetsu lifted a metal-plated hand and called out to a group of firefighters huddled around a tablet displaying a projected image of what appeared to be a schematic of the building.  “Hey!  Did we get everyone out?”

 

One of firefighters broke off from the group and approached them, carrying the tablet.  The badge on her uniform read “Torres.” 

 

“Almost.  We're evacuating the last of the workers trapped on the other side of the warehouse.”  She swiped a finger across the tablet and spun the schematic around.  “We just learned that there are two people still missing.  Supposedly last seen in the break room."  She tapped on the tablet’s surface once more and a small room at the back of the building began to glow red.  “It’s actually not very far from an entry point.  Just need to cross two hallways.  But most of our personnel and equipment’s on the other side.  We’re going to have to wait for them to wrap up before we can move our resources here.”

 

The sound of metal gears crunching together conveyed Kotetsu’s intention as clear as if he’d said it out loud.  The idiot was about to volunteer himself despite the fact that he’d exhausted his Hundred Power and was practically useless.

 

“I'll get them out," she offered, surprising both herself and Kotetsu.  At his astonished look, she said, "This is what Heroes do, right?" 

 

“But your suit's not fireproof—”

 

“Hello?  Ice?”  She gestured at herself impatiently.  Sometimes Karina wondered if all hits he’d taken to the head over the years were catching up to him.  “I’ve got this, Tiger.  Just… Just stay here and don’t get in my way.”

 

She spun away from him in a huff.  If she had left her hair loose instead of freezing it into place, she would’ve flipped it over her shoulder.  Torres looked visibly relieved as she guided her through the maze of vehicles and personnel.  “I’m a little worried about the integrity of the structure,” she confessed in a low voice.  “I’m not sure if the other team can get here in time.  We could really use your help.”

 

“Of course,” Karina replied, a confident smile firmly in place.  “Anything for the citizens of Stern Bild.” 

 

Faced with the reality of the situation, that confidence waned just a tiny bit.  Thick smoke poured out of the back entrance, making it impossible to see more than a few feet into the hallway.  At least the heat wasn’t too intense, this far back from the source of the fire, but it wasn’t hard to imagine how much hotter it would be the deeper she moved into the warehouse.

 

She glanced down at herself, a last-minute check of her equipment.  Six water canisters, plus the two already loaded into the guns.  Usually the number she carried was adequate for most calls, but for situations like this fire, having access to a larger water supply could be helpful, since she wouldn’t be able to pull any water from the air inside.

 

Karina made a mental note to bring it up with the techs once the rescue operation was over.

 

She turned to the woman standing next to her.  “Can you get a hose out here?”

 

Torres nodded.  “Shouldn’t be a problem.”  She glanced over at the smoky entrance.  “Not sure what you need it for, though.  Can’t reach the fire from here.”

 

“I’ve got an idea,” Karina reassured her.

 

XoX

 

Kotetsu insisted on carrying the hose alongside her.  “Least I could do,” he huffed as he braced himself against the powerful rush of water erupting from the outlet.

 

Karina held her arm out and concentrated.  As Kotesu aimed the mouth of the hose down the hallway, she directed the water to expand outward, freezing it until she’d created a crude ice tunnel that cleared the smoke out and allowed her a better view of the interior.  She could a faint orange glow at the end of the long hallway, right where she needed to follow the turn into the next one.  Well, at least she knew now what was waiting for her.

 

Behind her, she could hear the metal plates of Kotetsu’s suit clanking together as he dropped the hose.  “Stay.  I don’t want to have to save you too.”  Karina expected him to try and convince her once more to stand down and not endanger herself.  To leave the heroics to him and his partner.  What came out of his mouth took her by surprise. 

 

"Did Bunny talk to you at all today?"

 

"Huh?"  She looked over at him, thoroughly confused.  Did she hear him correctly?  Why was he talking about Barnaby, of all people, at this moment?

 

Kotetsu was rubbing the back of neck, a sheepish expression settling on his face.  "Did he...uh...say anything to you?"

 

"No, I haven't seen him all day,” she replied testily.  Which was the truth.  She’d spent the morning at the recording studio.  A lunch meeting with a reporter, the photoshoot in the early afternoon, and now this fire.  She barely had any time to check her messages.  “And why would he want to talk to me?"

 

"Oh it's nothing..." His voice trailed off as he tore his gaze away from hers to settle on a point far over her shoulder.

 

Again with the evasiveness.  Her patience with this unexpected line of questioning evaporated as quickly as the water inside the warehouse.  “Tiger—”

 

Kotetsu held up his hands in an attempt to placate her.  “It’s not my place to say anything.  Don’t worry about it.  I’m sure he’ll find you later.”

 

Karina would’ve preferred to corner him against the wall and grill him until he coughed up why his partner was looking for her.  However, time wasn’t on her side.  How long her ice tunnel would hold out against the fire was anyone’s guess.  She turned away, a noise of frustration escaping her, and rushed down the iced-over hallway.

 

While the entire structure looked fairly solid from the outside, being inside the tunnel was a different story.  The thickness of the ice decreased the further she moved into it, not surprising given the limited reach of the hose.  Of particular concern were the fine cracks spreading across the glistening surface.  Karina took out her freezing guns and reinforced the last section, adding layer upon layer of ice until both canisters were emptied.  It still wasn’t thick enough for her satisfaction, but she couldn’t risk depleting another set of canisters, not until she knew what shape those workers were in.  After switching them out for fresh ones, she turned the corner—

 

And came to an immediate stop when confronted with a hallway that was completely on fire.  It took another pair to douse the flames, enough that she could pass through relatively unsinged.  Just as Torres had said, the break room was at the end of the hallway, on her left.  Karina kicked open the door and was immediately buffeted by a blast of smoke and hot air that brought tears to her eyes and sent her into coughing fits.

 

When her vision cleared, she discovered the two workers collapsed on the floor, unmoving.  Fearing the worst, Karina dropped to her knees beside them.  To her immense relief, she was able to locate a pulse for each man, weak though it was.  If she could get them to the ambulances waiting outside, they might still pull through.

 

But how to do just that?  Karina sat up and eyed the unconscious men.  She certainly wasn’t going to carry them; she knew her own limitations.  Perhaps if she fashioned a sled of some kind?  Taking aim with her gun, Karina carefully laid down a base of ice beneath them, building it up until she’d created a platform a few inches thick.  With the men secured to her makeshift sled, she took hold of the handle bar and began to maneuver them out of the room and into the hallway, laying down a thin sheet of ice on the floor so that she could more easily push the sled from behind.

 

But retracing her path back to the entry point proved harder than she’d thought, and not only because she was lugging an extra 300 pounds.  Her ice had not been able to hold back the fire for very long.  The hallway was once more engulfed in flames, burning hotter than before.  In the intense heat her ice melted much too quickly, reducing her to a slow, crawling pace as she took frequent breaks to either push the flames back or reinforce her sled.  By the time she reached what remained of her ice tunnel Karina was down to one canister. 

 

And that wasn’t her only problem.  The faint, groaning noises that had been echoing throughout the warehouse were only growing louder.  Karina feared that the building was completely compromised.  That it was on the verge of collapsing.  So she grit her teeth and squared her shoulders, gathering the last of her dwindling energy for a mad sprint through the rapidly-disintegrating tunnel. 

 

But before she could even put a foot in front of her, an ominous rumble sounded from above.  Karina looked up, just in time to see a huge chunk of twisted metal and concrete break free of the foundation wall and tumble down towards her.  She threw herself to the side, twisting her body around to shoot a shaft of ice at the sled to propel it forward and out of the way.

 

It worked.  The concrete block smashed through the ice a heart-stopping second later, partially cutting her off from the sled, which luckily had ended up on the side facing the entrance.

 

“Blue Rose!  Look out!”  At the end of the tunnel she spied Kotetsu’s figure outlined in the doorway, arms waving about wildly.  It looked as if he was getting ready to run in.

 

Karina glanced down at the gun in her hand.  She had just enough water for another one.

 

“Get ready to catch!” she yelled, not sure if he could hear her above the ever increasing roar of the fire.  She took aim and pulled the trigger.  Water flowed out of the nozzle, coalescing into a thick shaft of ice that acted like a battering ram, launching the sled across the disintegrating ice tunnel and right into a waiting Kotetsu.

 

A faint shout of surprise indicated that he had managed to catch her sled.  Breathing a sigh of relief, Karina prepared to climb over the broken concrete and skate forward to safety.  At that moment the foundation wall gave way completely, no longer able to withstand the fire and support the roof.  Burning debris rained down on her, the flames and thick smoke making it impossible to see her way out.  Panic dug its claws into her, closing tight around her throat as she fumbled for her gun.

 

But there was hardly any water left in the canister.  And barely enough remained in the air to form a protective shield around her.

 

She slumped to her knees, shock paralyzing her limbs.  Karina was aware, somewhat abstractly, that death was always a possibility.  She knew, despite the cheery, positive spin that Hero TV constantly put on their daring feats, that Heroes weren’t invincible. 

 

Maybe it was because she was young.  Maybe she had trusted in her powers too much. 

 

She had never really considered that she could ever fail.

 

_Mom..._

_Dad…_

 

Her vision blurred, the tears gathering beneath her lashes drying from the heat before they could even roll down her cheeks. 

 

Another deafening rumble right above her, followed by the shriek of metal snapping.

 

_I’m so sorry._


End file.
